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27Feb

Totally MAD

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What, me worry? Yes, unfortunately. This coffee-table sampling of 60 years of MAD magazine disappoints on a number of fronts. Many of the selected articles are incomplete; the type is often impossible to read without a magnifying glass; and, last but not least, there is not enough Don Martin. There can never be enough Don Martin.

Another problem, probably one that could not be helped, is that much of MAD’s humor is topical – and topical humor tends to lose bite over time. Marlon Brando jokes from the 1950s don’t quite cut it in 2013.

It might have been a better idea to do what Dark Horse Comics did with old issues of Creepy and Eerie, and publish a series of books containing entire issues of MAD; if they had done so, I would have been happy to buy editions representing, say, 1964 to 1970. But I don’t want to be too harsh on “the usual gang of idiots,” because there are a lot of funny bits in this 256-page collection, and nostalgia seekers will surely find some nuggets.

24Feb

Argo

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Ben Affleck’s moderately entertaining Argo is the trendy pick to walk off with a Best Picture award at tonight’s Oscars, and if it does, it will be a bigger con than the great escape his movie depicts.

Argo, loosely based on a joint effort between Canada and the CIA to smuggle six Americans out of Tehran in 1980, is a perfectly serviceable blend of comedy and suspense – but no more than that. The movie doesn’t come to life until its third act, when Affleck, as real-life agent Tony Mendez, has some tense moments shepherding his American charges (posing as filmmakers in Iran to scout locations) through Tehran’s hostile airport security.

Prior to that, we sit through 90 minutes of mostly yawn-inducing exposition in which CIA spooks make plans and Hollywood players (Alan Arkin and John Goodman) crack jokes. Don’t make the mistake that I did, expecting this film to be a comic thriller, with the emphasis on “comic”; for the most part, Argo takes itself oh-so seriously, with Arkin and Goodman on hand, sporadically, to contribute a few wisecracks.

It’s no spoiler to reveal that big Ben and the Americans win the day. I won’t carp about the unlikely, nick-of-time developments (pick up the phone! pick up the phone!) that add to the suspense, because that’s what thrillers do. And I also won’t complain about the climactic chase scene, which reportedly has no basis in reality, because hey, that’s also what thrillers do.

But the epilogue is one of those absurd “everybody stand up and clap” clichés that Hollywood loves to stage – even though, in this case, nobody actually claps. (Wait, I double-checked; yes, they do.) For no apparent reason, Ben’s estranged wife takes him back, and Ben gets a macho backslap from the boss. God forbid they also give him an Oscar. Grade: B

Director: Ben Affleck Cast: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham Release: 2012

Watch Trailers and Clips (click here)

22Feb

Girls

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Thoughts from a Middle-Aged Male About a Show Meant for …

Well, Not Him

Lena Dunham’s Girls attracts an awful lot of media attention for a show with modest ratings. According to its critics, the HBO series: fails the diversity test; celebrates as role models four young women living in New York City who are self-centered and do little but whine about their (privileged) lives; frequently foists upon the unsuspecting viewer the unwelcome spectacle of a naked Dunham, a big girl who has no business taking her clothes off.

The show’s champions, especially television critics, say Girls is groundbreaking TV and Dunham is a genius.

Clearly, the world demands some impartial reflections from a middle-aged male, such as me. My impressions after binge-viewing the first five episodes:

One: At its core, there is nothing particularly new about the show’s themes. Girls just want to find love … girls just want to have babies … girls just want R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

It’s the manner in which those themes are addressed that gives the show its bite. Hannah (Dunham) and her roommate Marnie (Allison Williams) enjoy watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show … but it’s hard to imagine Mary and Rhoda cracking jokes at an abortion clinic, as Hannah and Marnie do, or engaging in kinky sex play to get their boyfriends off, as Hannah does.

Two: Unlike Mary and Ted and Mr. Grant, the main characters on Girls are not overtly lovable. I would call them “interesting.” Hannah and company are reaping the rewards of feminism — but they are also abusing them. Casual sex and potluck drugs are de rigueur for these gals (their boyfriends are no better).

Three: There really isn’t all that much nudity — at least not in the first five episodes — contrary to the sniggering comments found at some Web sites.

Four: The girls don’t strike me as all that spoiled or that privileged. If you’re going to criticize their characters, it would be for their immaturity — something I certainly never experienced. Did you?

Five: There are no minorities in major roles. Big deal.

Six: There is a lot of crude behavior and language. Not a good thing, but last time I checked out the real world, there is a lot of crude behavior and language.

Bottom (middle-aged) Line: I like the show. It’s not the work of brilliance that some critics maintain, but it is well-written, funny, and unpredictable. Grade: B+

Creator: Lena Dunham Cast: Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Adam Driver, Alex Karpovsky Premiere: 2012

Watch the Trailer or Episodes (click here)

22Feb

People Who Eat Darkness

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by Richard Lloyd Parry

When it comes to “true-crime” material, journalist Parry had a lot to work with for this book: a mysterious, cold-blooded rapist/killer who used charm and loads of cash to lure victims; an intriguing culture clash between East and West, as the British family of victim Lucie Blackman descends on the Land of the Rising Sun to seek justice for Lucie, who was eventually found – in pieces – buried in a seashore cave; and the lurid setting of much of the book: the bizarre night world of Roppongi, a Tokyo red-light district where Lucie worked as a “hostess.”

What Parry delivers is a workmanlike recounting of the hunt for Lucie, followed by the trial of middle-aged Joji Obara, who comes off as a combination of Jay Gatsby and Hannibal Lecter, certainly the strangest “date rapist” in Japanese history. But Parry is handicapped by never landing an interview with the enigmatic Obara, which turns People into a poignant, but not particularly compelling, story of the luckless Blackmans.

17Feb

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009)

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The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia made me feel like a horsefly at the county dump. Everywhere I looked, there was garbage and piles of unpleasantness, but damned if it didn’t attract me.

Director Julien Nitzberg used film from a 1991 documentary and new footage to shine a spotlight on the Whites, a multi-generational clan of mountain dancers, moonshiners, cons, and killers, not to mention the terror of Boone County, West Virginia. The Whites — from barefoot young’uns to toothless elders — allowed Nitzberg to film them in bad times and in … well, I’m not sure that there are any good times for this bunch, although I’m certain they would argue the point.

One of the challenges of watching this movie is that each White is a natural-born storyteller, blessed with the con man’s gift of gab, usually through nicotine-stained teeth and whiskey-choked larynxes. But how much of what they say is actually true? It’s tempting, for example, to listen as Jesco White professes his admiration for Charles Manson and to assume that, like any good reality-TV star, Jesco simply knows how to hook his listener.

But then Nitzberg turns his camera on Boone County law enforcement, and the sheriff rattles off a litany of crimes committed by Whites over the years. We learn who was shot, who was killed, and who was imprisoned. We watch Kirk White snort drugs just hours after she gives birth to yet another White. A judge means business when he sentences Brandon Poe to 50 years in prison for shooting Mamie White’s boyfriend in the face. And “Wimpy” isn’t kidding when he reveals what’s tattooed on his penis.

There’s a good deal of exploitation in a documentary like this, both by the filmmakers and by the self-serving subjects. We are often invited to laugh at their outlaw exploits. Yet when I wasn’t gawking at a drunken “girls’ night out” or marveling at Jesco’s clog-dancing routine, I felt … depressed.

We see little soul-searching by the hell-raising Whites, nor any sleepless nights when the government checks don’t arrive in the mail. The coal-mining life of these hill people, despite all their whooping and dancing and drinking, is not very pretty. Sort of like what you see at the county dump. Grade: B+

Director: Julien Nitzberg Featuring: Jesco White, Mamie White Release: 2009

Watch the Trailer (click here)

11Feb

Beasts of the Southern Wild

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As I watched Beasts of the Southern Wild, director Benh Zeitlin’s mystical, philosophical sojourn in the “Bathtub,” a fictional bayou settlement in southern Louisiana, I had two reactions: 1) I thought, this is the kind of film that sheltered, privileged city-dwellers probably love, because it allows them to spy on and empathize with rural “little people” for a brisk 90 minutes or so; 2) I thought, this is the kind of film that residents of the Bathtub — if they were real and assuming they ever watched movies — would likely detest. There is very little plot, lots of mumbo jumbo about man’s place in the universe, artsy-fartsy photography, and a “can we all get along?” sentimentality.

Oh, and I had a third thought: The people of the Bathtub would make excellent subjects for a documentary on the National Geographic Channel. If nothing else, Beasts is a welcome reminder that, between the coasts, America is many things, none of them apartments on the Upper East Side or cop chases in South L.A.

Young Quvenzhane Wallis, five years old at the time of filming, has been nominated for an Oscar for her starring role as “Hushpuppy,” a spunky Bathtub resident who lives in squalor with her ailing, abusive father. Wallis is very good; she has an expressive face and loads of charm. But Best Actress good? Lord, no. Maggie Smith has nothing to fear. At least not yet.

Not a lot happens to Hushpuppy in this movie. We are voyeurs of her poverty-stricken lifestyle in the heat and humidity of the swamp. But we needn’t worry much about her because, although her drunken father occasionally beats her and her neighbors are all illiterate pigs, these people like each other. And Hushpuppy is wise beyond her years. And the Bathtubians(?) don’t much cotton to encroachment by modern civilization, which threatens their idyllic way of life. So we can thank them for 90 minutes of their time and go back to our apartments and cop chases in South L.A. Grade: C+

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Director: Benh Zeitlin Cast: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly, Lowell Landes, Pamela Harper, Gina Montana, Amber Henry, Jonshel Alexander Release: 2012

Watch Trailers and Clips (click here)

08Feb

Gone Girl

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by Gillian Flynn

Did smirking Nick Dunne kill his gorgeous, albeit pampered, young wife? As I read for clues, the plot twists kept coming but I persevered … persevered … persevered – stop. Alas, about two thirds into the story, Gone Girl lost me.

Flynn’s mindbender is peppered with clever asides about marriage, co-dependence, and the perils of marrying a sociopath, but it’s also decidedly lacking in sympathetic characters; if her people aren’t flat-out crazy, then they’re something conceivably worse: relentlessly cynical. But we all love a good villain, and the cat-and-mouse shenanigans between the less-than-perfect Dunnes are often delicious (imagine Nick and Nora Charles with homicidal streaks). The problem here is plot: There are simply too many “yeah, right” moments.

02Feb

Reviews in Short: February 2013

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Art School Confidential Quirkiness has done well for Terry Zwigoff, the creator of off-the-wall gems like Ghost World and Crumb. Zwigoff’s Art School is certainly peculiar, blending youth romance with satire about what constitutes “art.” And oh, yes: There is a subplot about a vicious serial killer terrorizing the school campus. Hey, I did mention that Zwigoff is into quirky. But despite funny supporting work from John Malkovich and Jim Broadbent, this time Zwigoff falls flat. Art School is often slow and it’s hampered by a dullish Max Minghella as the young hero. Release: 2006 Grade: C

*****

Safety Not Guaranteed tries hard to be a lovable fantasy-romance, but male lead Mark Duplass, as an eccentric who claims to know the secret of time travel, comes off stiff and childish. There are also some jarring shifts in tone — it’s difficult to sustain whimsy when your quirky comedy suddenly morphs into an armed-heist thriller — but doe-eyed Aubrey Plaza is disarming as a kooky “emo girl,” a magazine intern sent to investigate oddball Duplass. Release: 2012 Grade: C+

*****

House at the End of the Street Until it gets stupid, stupider, and stupidest in its last act, during which every horror-flick cliché ever clichéd comes into play, House is a decent enough thriller. But not even Jennifer Lawrence — smack in the midst of Major Movie-Star Momentum — can rescue that silly third act. Lawrence, playing a typical teen who moves with her mom to a house with some atypical neighbors, at least doesn’t embarrass herself. Release: 2012 Grade: C

*****

The Aztec Box What hath the Blair Witch wrought? Aztec is yet another low-budget, found-footage horror flick, this time involving the unearthing of a cursed Mexican artifact. I say “low-budget,” but that’s not really the problem here. The problem is a run-time that’s about 20 minutes too long, much of it inane home-movie footage that really should have remained lost. Release: 2013 Grade: D

*****

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara You might not agree with all of McNamara’s “lessons,” but this mix of archival footage and interviews with the former Secretary of Defense could be one of the best films about war — and the all-too-human leaders who wage them — ever made. McNamara is alternately brash and humble as he chronicles his uniquely American life, culminating with his years as advisor to two presidents during the hellish Vietnam War. Release: 2003 Grade: A

25Jan

No Easy Day

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by Mark Owen and Kevin Maurer

“In all of my deployments, we routinely saw this phenomenon. The higher up the food chain the targeted individual was, the bigger a pussy he was. The leaders were less willing to fight. It is always the young and impressionable who strap on the explosives and blow themselves up.” Those words are from “Mark Owen,” co-author of No Easy Day and one of the Navy SEALs responsible for killing Osama bin Laden.

The book is a compelling look at the day-to-day life of an elite SEAL, and I’m sure it’s a great recruitment tool for the military. However … if only Owen had left it at that. Owen (a pseudonym), who claims that he and his fellow SEALs don’t much concern themselves with politics, does little to hide his disdain for Barack Obama, and presumably liberals in general – yet has nothing to say about the “young and impressionable” Americans who died in the bogus war begun by Obama’s predecessor.

16Jan

David Copperfield

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by Charles Dickens

They say that people don’t read books anymore, and they say that the few who do, don’t read long books. Especially long, old books. So I suppose there isn’t much of an audience these days for novels like David Copperfield, Dickens’s 729-page coming-of-age classic, and that’s a shame, because books might not get any better than this.

Unlike Tolstoy (the endless battle scenes in War and Peace), and Hugo (an interminable description of the Paris sewer system in Les Miserables), Dickens avoids bloat in Copperfield. It’s not “perfect” – Dickens’s affection for some characters borders on sappiness, and a few of his plot coincidences stretch credulity – but in the two categories that matter most, strong characters and story, I’m not sure that it can be topped.

Wait, I take that back. There was a little book called Great Expectations ….